School meal prices are headed up
LAUREL — Laurel-Concord-Coleridge School aren’t trying to nickel and dime families but instead intend on raising lunch prices nominally to help cover rising costs.
At its last meeting, the LCC School Board approved a 5-cent raise on breakfast and lunch meals for both students and adults starting this fall.
Student lunch will be $2.95 for those students in grades Kindergarten through fourth; and $3.10 for grades 5-12. Breakfast will be $2.15 for students in grades Kindergarten through fourth; and $2.25 for the upper grades.
Adult meals will be $3.40 for breakfast and $4.40 for lunch. An adult salad bar, chef salad or entree will be $2.90. Ala carte items will remain the same price.
For the last two years, public schools served all students free meals since the COVID-19 pandemic first disrupted K-12 education. In March, Congress rejected calls to keep up the federal funding required to sustain the practice.
Prior to the pandemic, meal prices were raised five cents each year for the past three academic years, according to Superintendent Jeremy Christiansen’s report.
With inflation at a 40-year high, the school system is feeling the pinch of the rising costs of food and supplies.
Federal regulations changed in 2022 to require schools to establish a price for paid lunches and may be required to annually increase prices for reimbursable student meals by 10 cents, Christiansen said.
At its last meeting, school board members also approved a memorandum of understanding for use of Laurel United Presbyterian Church for the school’s summer enrichment programs and before and after school programs starting in the fall.
Alternative space for the programs were necessary as the LCC school undergoes demolition and construction of its new facilities.
Under the agreement, the school will have access to the church’s kitchen, classroom, fellowship hall, bathrooms, parking lot, entrance area and its south classroom.
The school will pay $500 per month under the agreement which lasts through the end of May 2023 and will additionally pay 75 percent of the church’s utility costs.
Christiansen said primarily students in pre-Kindergarten through sixth grade would use the church facilities. The enrichment programs impacted will most likely be accommodated in the new school building once it’s complete, he said.
The school utilizes more than $450,000 in ESSER III funds - the third wave of federal school emergency relief funds stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic - for these enrichment programs, operating without the use of general fund resources, Christiansen said.
The school board also discussed the recent architectural and building salvage auction that took place May 21. The school system netted more than $10,000 after the auction was settled by Creamer Auction Co. in Hartington.
Christiansen also reported receiving an initial settlement from EMC Insurance over the fire loss of the storage building at the Middle School campus in Coleridge. The net settlement will be nearly $239,000. Recoverable depreciation will be submitted and considered upon replacement of items or completion of repairs, Christiansen said.
Electrical wiring was the cause for the April 19 blaze contained to the auxiliary building with the southern portion of the structure receiving the most damage. The adjacent main school building had some minor heat damage. The building had been used for classrooms, but was only being used for storage at the time of the fire. The next school board meeting was set for 7:20 p.m., Monday, July 11, at the high school.
